the reason, a closed refinery, pipeline problems, and strict state pollution laws. cnn's senior producer paul vercammen is in burbank, california, at a gas station where people are hurting. >> reporter: they are. in fact, they're absolutely stunned this morning when they see the price because if you look behind me, it is at $4.61 a gallon for regular. well, that is just a shock to the people here. they can't believe it jumped 19 cents overnight. now, this shell station, you can see, does have gas and it is getting more gas right now. you highlighted, carol, there were costco stations throughout the area that ran out of gas. and believe it or not, the $4.61, that's a bargain for this neighborhood. we saw a lot of signs that said about $4.77, $4.79. it is costing people a lot of money to fuel up. many of them are coming into the gas station, maybe putting in $20, $40, for some big suvs. they're spending more than $100 just to fill up. and we saw one man earlier today, chatted with him, he drives into the station, looks at the price, just shakes his head and then he dr